I’m a Co-Founder, Director and CMO at GYROstream and DistroDirect. I’m also a Mum of two boys, a two-year-old and a two-month-old we welcomed at the start of December.

Ever since I can remember, I wanted to work in the music industry. My obsession with movies like Almost Famous, terrible high school band projects, and 12 years of piano and singing tuition helped me gravitate towards a journalism degree where I majored in popular music and film.  From there I volunteered in various media roles at multiple community radio stations on the Gold Coast (shoutout Radio Metro and Juice Gold Coast!) I also wrote for music press like FasterLouder, InTheMix and Tsunami Magazine (RIP) and the Australian Times while living in London on a gap year. Of course, I thought I was going to be the next editor of Rolling Stone but soon realized paid media jobs in the industry are very few and decided to put the dream on ice for a while.

I returned from London to a job as a junior media advisor for the then Deputy Premier and Health Minister of Queensland. It was a tough job but taught me about the brutality of the 24-hour news cycle. I then worked in a myriad of publicity and marketing jobs at agencies, for film companies, cinema chains and theatres before landing firmly where I belong – in the music industry at a PR company and then going on to start GYROstream.

At GYROstream and DistroDirect, my co-founders and I started with three people in 2018 and we now have a crew of 24 across multiple continents. My role is ever-evolving as the company grows but generally, I help drive the overall marketing, PR and comms strategy for GYROstream, our white-label product DistroDirect and our associated sub-brands. This includes managing the promo teams and ensuring we make the most of every opportunity we can to get our artists music heard by more people.

In 2018 I was also asked to join the QMusic Management Committee. QMusic helps to advance the music industry economy in Queensland through various programs and runs events like the Queensland Music Awards and BIGSOUND. My work with the organisation continues to help fuel my passion for seeing Queensland artists and industry thrive.

At the moment, my day-to-day is filled with baby-related activities but when I return from maternity leave a typical Friday might look like this:

6am – wake up and do a quick scan of some key playlists on streaming platforms to see if any of our artists landed a spot

8am – daycare drop off

8.30am – Weekly call with our DistroDirect Business Development reps in the USA to talk about any new and existing leads, take them through any developments with the team back at HQ in Australia and have a general catch up about the week ahead. It’s 6.30pm for him on the East Coast so morning calls are always the way to go.

9.30am – 10.30am – checking emails and troubleshooting any issues over chat or in person with the wider team in Brisbane and Sydney, reviewing team targets and checking in with key team members about projects they are working on

10.30am – It’s Friday so we have an all staff catch up where team leaders take everyone through their achievements for the week and department updates. We celebrate the wins together and note any action points.

11am – more emails – approving comms to go out to customers, forwarding communications, directing correspondence

12pm – lunch – it’s the first Friday of the month so we buy lunch for the whole team and eat together.

1pm – 3pm – researching and planning a strategy for an overseas music conference we will be exhibiting DistroDirect at soon

3pm – 4pm – reviewing a deal proposal the team have put together for a big artist we are looking to bring over to GYROstream

4.30pm – daycare pickup

7.30pm – I might do some more emails once the kids are in bed… or I might have a wine… or both (porque no los dos!)

I think it depends on what part of the music industry you are looking to get into. If you wish to become a marketing expert or a publicist, it’s a lot more difficult without a degree. University and TAFE courses can open up internship opportunities which is how most people enter into the industry these days. We have employed seven former interns at GYROstream who are now working in full-time paid roles across all parts of the business and all of them came through a university-accredited internship/ work experience program.

I have had plenty of challenges during my time in the industry. Sometimes they’ve been small things like a mistake in an email I sent to 10,000 people or involved unexpected crisis PR for events I’ve worked on. Other times I’ve worked with teams where we’ve given a release absolutely everything we could but it just hasn’t connected and everyone in the team, especially the artist is disappointed. I always take the view that every mistake and every failure is a learning opportunity. No one ever gets it right every time and no one is going to be happy with your work 100% of the time but at the end of the day, if you can go home each night knowing you gave the very best you had in the moment, with the time you had, what anyone else thinks is irrelevant.

My role models and perspectives have changed since I became a Mum. They used to be purely career based but now I look to other working Mums in the industry and have a new level of respect for them. The music industry, whilst getting better, can be a really tough place for Mums. Many females just leave the industry altogether after becoming parents because of a range of structural, social and cultural factors. Some music industry Mums who are achieving great things in our industry include Van Picken (Sony Music), Jack River, Maggie Collins and Jena Chupungco (Morning Belle), Cat Clarke (The Zoo/Road Agent PR) and Rhiannon Cook (Positive Feedback).

Outside the Mum-sphere, I love to regularly share knowledge with thought leaders and people who occupy other areas of the industry to me. Some of these people are Stephen Green at SGC Media, Tyler McLoughlin (The Sound Pound), Brad Hinds (Oztix) and Moe Mathew (Strut).

Of course, I have to choose three Queenslanders!

I’m super excited about what Yb. is creating at the moment. 2023 is going to be HUGE for him.

Brisbane producer GURPAAL is creating some really delicious dark electronic soundscapes and I’m excited for what he does next.

And Sunshine Coast duo Betty Taylor have only released one song so far but it’s a cracker.

This is HARD.

Surprise Radiohead gig at The Park stage at Glastonbury 2010

Daft Punk Alive Tour at The Riverstage 2007

Royksopp and Robyn at Shepherds Bush Empire in London 2009

The thing I am most proud of is being a part of building a music business in Brisbane. A lot of people move interstate for industry roles but we’ve managed to establish our business and employ people here and contribute to the knowledge base in our home state. I think it’s important we have industry thought leaders spread across different parts of Australia.

Earlier in my career when I’d been stressed and things were spiraling, I had multiple people say to me ‘don’t be so hard on yourself, we’re not saving lives’ – it’s a brutal thing to say but a great way to get things into perspective. At the end of the day, we’re entertaining people and working together to do that the best that we can.

My biggest champion has been myself. I think at every turn you’ve got to back yourself and your abilities. However my parents would be a close second. They owned three very different businesses, reinvented their careers twice and worked tirelessly their whole life and always take on new challenges with absolute gusto. Seeing them approach life this way and encourage me has instilled in me a really healthy sense of confidence from a young age and I feel like it’s really influenced both my work ethic and approach to work and people.

I’d also like to give a special mention to two of my current business partners Andy Irvine and Andrew Wilson. We all share very different skill sets and ways of thinking and that’s why our partnership works so well. For example, I am terrible at the numbers side of the business (I’m getting much better) but where I lack in that area, I can share my marketing, writing skills, industry and consumer knowledge with them.

In the streaming world, the biggest threat to the industry is hands down artificial streaming. There’s been a lot of chatter between distributors, DSPs, majors and others about how we as an industry can come together to combat it. There’s even a few data analysis companies set up now just to work with distributors to catch fraudsters and every independent distributor has someone or a team dedicated to catching baddies. Some are saying it’s around 3% of streams worldwide are fraudulent or artificial, others are saying it’s as high as 10%. That 10% of global streaming revenue could be going to bonafide artists and until there’s a cross-continent effort to pull it back, it’s going to continue to be eroded.

Stop worrying about stuff you can’t change. Also, stop doom scrolling and go to bed …. and remember to breathe.

I always try to make sure I get out of the house for a walk, run or some exercise every day that I can. In an ideal world, it would be by myself with a good podcast or playlist on but at the moment I have a tiny baby. Soon I’ll get to have a bit more alone time. It’s so important to carve it out. It makes me a better business person and a better Mum when I can recharge.

Being a business owner on maternity leave is hard, there’s not really an ‘off switch’ for the business and there’s not really an ‘off switch’ for motherhood either. I’m still checking emails each day and replying to things in the group chat when I’m needed but I try to keep it to the really important stuff. Even when I am at work, I constantly feel like I’m failing at motherhood and when I’m doing Mum things I feel like I’m failing at work. It’s a juggle that’s for sure. Now I have small children I sadly can’t go to as many shows as I would like to but I get to whatever I can, and I generally switch off between 4.30pm and 7.30pm each day to be with my kids but sometimes work creeps in. My toddler just the other day said ‘Mum, put your phone away and push me on the swing!’ – talk about a reality check. Being absolutely present with my kids when they are with me is my 2023 goal.

Go outside and walk around the block. Get some fresh air, some chocolate or a frozen coke and always wait at least an hour before writing back to an email that has pissed you off. Your response will be WAY better once you’ve had time to think about it.

Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus… I won a bucket of beers at a music festival in Budapest singing that song.